Comments on: Hot air pencil for under $20

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:37:35 +0000

LOL; from the blog spot link “It didn’t work! At least not on the solder on the circuit board.” I hope you work from home Stuart, in my part of the world you get a large ration of shit when you get to the shop.

By: cooblades

cooblades — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:23:26 +0000

To Bobob

Up top! *high five gesture*

By: bobob

bobob — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:15:54 +0000

what the fuck is the point of posting stuff like this when it doesnt even work???? hell,even the author of the “more recent version” states that point blank.

and now,back to your regularly scheduled aurdino commercials.

By: epicelite

epicelite — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:20:47 +0000

I saw a instructable where a guy put some desoldering braid inside the head of the thing so that it would help transfer heat to the air as it passes through.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:11:37 +0000

I also tried this one out, over the summer, but it didnt work all that well. I tried changing it a bit, after the initial not working, by adding a thin brass pipe down the center of the soldering iron, to hold more steel wool, and adding a finer tip taken from a steel mechanical pencil, it still didnt work.

By: coo no L blades

coo no L blades — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:33:29 +0000

Tried it back in 07 and it didn’t work, I didn’t try too hard honestly. A hot air paint stripper or a hot plate works with less effort.

I would like to see more DIY hot air irons, perhaps with temp control. You can buy a spool of nichrome wire from ebay or from Omega.com

By: nope

nope — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:52:04 +0000

Damn good find.

By: capissen

capissen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:54:47 +0000

I tried this exact same setup. It was okay, but painfully slow, and ineffective on anything larger than small SMD components. Needs more airflow and heat.

By: PocketBrain

PocketBrain — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:52:46 +0000

Yep, made one a couple years ago according to the earlier Hackaday post, didn’t work terribly well. Some tricks to make it work:
- Get a high-watt desolderer.
- Include a footswitch to control the pump.
- Severely restrict air flow.
- That steel wool trick looks reasonable.
I don’t use it for that purpose anymore; it still desolders, and I got a real SMD rework station for real work; it’s worth it.

By: vikki

vikki — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:45:38 +0000

boys, heat guns are $20. easier to set up, not as precision true, but still simpler than this.

By: therian

therian — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:18:53 +0000

This toll work great as desoldering tool but as hot air desoldering it just newer work, you will overheat and burn all components before you desolder them with this, trust me I tried to do this many times before buying hot air station

By: tantris

tantris — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:48:58 +0000

@Caleb
agreed. the tone isn’t always the nicest here.
but sometimes rude and irritated is hard to distinguish. and i admit, i got irritated: the original writeup goes through the steps, without mentioning that it kind of doesn’t work that well. Paddy’s blog ( mentioned as “more recent version” above) is much better: go through the steps and report whether that works or not.
unfortunately, hackaday just linked to it as “more recent version” and forgot to mention, that’ it doesn’t work.
i wouldn’t bash the project as a whole. (i am looking for curling irons and broken toasters right now..) but there are write ups that are bad and misleading, and good ones that are open to (constructive) criticism.

By: Caleb Kraft

Caleb Kraft — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:17:22 +0000

@tantris,
Wouldn’t it also be possible for them to state that they’ve done it and explain that it didn’t work out in a positive manner? I know I appreciate knowing the pitfalls before I get started. But yeah, no need to bash the project.

By: tantris

tantris — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:04:32 +0000

oh bill, if something is posted as a great hack and five people who built it already think it’s junk, what should they do?
a) voice their opinion
or
b) stay quiet and let others find out for themselves

i admit, option b) reduces the crybabyness-factor of this site. but info-tainment-amusement over learning? that’s only preferable for theoretical hackers. you know, the kind who read this and think “wow, cool all the stuff that’s out there. some day i might build something like that.”

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:23:31 +0000

The people who comment on this site are the biggest bunch of crybabies on the internet.